Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

30 reviews

peachani's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, War, Blood, Child death, Gore, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Misogyny, Cursing, Vomit, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

alphabet_soup_books's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Genocide, Grief, Gore, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Death, Murder, Child death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Ableism, Alcohol, and Body shaming

clpavain's review

dark tense

This is the scariest book I've ever read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Murder, Body horror, Blood, Confinement, Gun violence, Violence, and Torture

a_cera_t0ps's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It was easy to get lost in this book. It was one of the most well researched space sci-fi pieces of media, especially in the young adult genre.

While the plot and external circumstances had very strong involvement, (i.e. BeiTech/the Lincoln) the story seemed very focused on the internal fallout of basically every named character (as much as possible without overcrowding the book).

There is a romance, technically two, but in neither does it feel forced. Between Kady and Ezra, it is a natural development; they had just broken up when the attack had happened, it was not due to a lack of feelings on either side. Throughout the book, they work together to survive. They put petty fights behind them. It's a very nontoxic relationship, and it was really engaging to read.
The other romance is probably mad spoilers, but is also well written. It intentionally goes against the grain of the natural character capabilities, but that is a heavy part of the plot: the breakage of what once was, especially when it comes to the Alexander's personel, body, and mind. 

The book was very quippy, and was written from individual perspectives, even when most of it is an outside observer. The writer style and format was all extremely creative, and in some ways, it needed to be. It is interesting to have such a clear example of just how different a movie is from that which a book is capable of.
This book was long, but it went fast, both due to the intriguing use of certain pages and to just pure engagement.

The main plot is Violent with a capital v. It is a rescue mission, a mystery, a zombie apocalypse, and a war. The romance is integral to the character's actions, but as actively involved as it is, they never undermine the important stuff. This is a character driven story: the importance and diversity of humanity (the moral stuff, not a group of people) is heavily explored, especially in the fourth quarter of the book. 

This is a crazy good book, with too many twists and turns for me to cover all of it, so just read it for yourself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, War, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Murder, and Confinement

Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, and Genocide

Minor: Colonisation, Confinement, Police brutality, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

mothreadsbookssometimes's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Illuminae was a fantastic book and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. I first read the Aurora Cycle trilogy, and I loved it so much that I had to read the rest of Kristoff’s and Kaufman’s works. And boy, am I having a time!
Illuminae is a very YA-friendly sci-fi mystery/thriller (I know it’s not tagged as a thriller, but it is) with minimal swearing (“censored on reports”), and only vague references to sex (jokes about “your sister” and references to acts done prior to the events of the story). 
Take it from someone who normally hates thrillers, this book is good. Admittedly, there’s a lot of death and blood (only a few disturbingly gory parts, though), so do keep that in mind, but I didn’t find it too uncomfortable and I’m normally a very squeamish person. 
Can’t wait for the next book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

I know it’s a lot of content warnings, so do proceed with caution. I’m not very good with blood/gore, but I only had a couple small parts (see below) that made me uncomfortable. There’s a lot of death, but it’s not vividly gory until about 45% (I think) into the book

when they enter the quarantine bay and 70% through

when the remaining Alexander survivors escape the ship

. For the most part, they just say “there’s blood/dead bodies/screams in the distance” but they don’t go into great detail with every mention of violence.

childoflight's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Violence, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death of parent, Police brutality, Gun violence, Confinement, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Child death and Suicidal thoughts

marsh_mall0w's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Police brutality, Torture, Vomit, and Colonisation

Minor: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury

sunnythesassy's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Genocide, Death of parent, Death, Body horror, Violence, Terminal illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Gaslighting, Confinement, War, Vomit, Blood, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Colonisation

Minor: Abandonment and Child abuse

alexa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.75

so. i have been collecting some thoughts throughout this whole thing and they might not be especially cohesive, but that's ok, i was always more of a bullet list person.
i like the format of this, it was really interesting and fun, even if limited the amount of what you can learn about the world. some things were weirdly the same considering we're 500 years in the future, as i already expressed.
it might be just me, but the romantic drama between 2 high school seniors was the least interesting part of this thing, i found it irrelevant and at time or two a little bit annoying, but i suppose that's 17/18yo allo people for you. dunno, never been there.
honestly in general, i did not feel much attached to or interested in the characters beyond like a superficial level.
the ai in this was so weirdly melodramatic and rambling aside from its twisted logic which i'm assuming comes from the damage sustained.
in the q&a at the end, the authors mentioned talking with psychiatrists as part of the research that went into this and it does not sound very inspiring, considering the level and amount of demonization of people struggling with psychosis is staggering and infuriating, i think it was actually my biggest problem with this book.
the authors were quite good at creating tension and making one need to read on to know what happens next, i'll give them that.
however, i'm not entirely sure about continuing the series. it's likely i will i guess? not if they continue the ableism though, i'm not gonna stand for that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, and Confinement

trs01's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

The writing in this book feels like a rough draft. The authors don't know how to handle serious situations, and the banter and humor were poorly timely and off-putting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, War, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Death, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Body horror, Blood, Murder, Vomit, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Xenophobia, Racism, and Sexism